A Cultural Primer

The vast majority (an estimated 85%-90%) of Honduras' 7.5 million or so people are mestizos or ladinos, which means they are of mixed American Indian and Spanish descent. The mestizo population therefore dominates the country's cities and the economic and political landscape of the country.

There are also eight other major ethnic groups that are concentrated in various regions around the country, the largest being the Lenca, who reside in the southwest, particularly the mountains and valleys near Gracias, and number around 100,000. The Lencas are descended from Chibcha-speaking Indians who came to Honduras from Colombia and Venezuela several thousand years ago. Nearby in the Copán Valley and along the border with Guatemala the Chortí-Maya is another indigenous group numbering between 4,000 and 5,000. They are the descendants of the ancient Maya.

The second-largest ethnic group in the country is the Garífuna, descendants of Carib and Arawak Indians who mixed with escaped African slaves and now populate the entire North Coast and the Bay Islands and number around 95,000. The British forcibly transplanted the Garífuna from the Cayman Islands to the island of Roatán in 1787 and from there they moved to other islands and to the mainland. The Garífuna still populate the Bay Islands, though they share the land with the Bay Islanders -- another ethnic group descended from pirates and blacks from elsewhere in the Caribbean -- and an increasing number of North Americans who are buying property and calling the islands home.

In the department of Yoro in the central highlands, the Tolupan inhabit scattered communities isolated among the mountains there. Three other indigenous groups can be found in the La Mosquitia (Mosquito Coast) region of the country. The lack of roads and transportation in this region has allowed the small pockets of Miskitos, Pech, and Tawahkas to maintain their cultural identities far better than most other indigenous groups in Central America, who have sometimes been engulfed by mainstream society. While the Miskitos are not a straight indigenous group -- but rather a cultural mishmash of an unknown tribe, English pirates, and escaped African slaves -- the Pech and Tawahkas have remained practically unchanged since preconquest.

Although Honduras has often been overshadowed by the impressive arts emerging from neighboring countries, the country's vibrant and diverse population has led to a number of achievements in the fine arts. Honduras has a thriving folk art scene. Best known are the country's primitivist painters, such as José Antonio Velásquez (1906-83) and Pablo Zelaya Sierra (1896-1933). The Lencas are also known throughout Central America for their pottery and ceramics. Finally, the artisans in Valle del Angeles are prized for their wood and leather work, while the Santa Bárbara area is known for producing excellent junco-palm hats, baskets, and mats.

The country has also been blessed with many gifted writers, including journalist Rafael Heliodoro Valle, poet Juan Ramón Molina, and novelist Ramón Amaya Amador. Medea Benjamin's Don't Be Afraid, Gringo: A Honduran Woman Speaks From The Heart: The Story of Elvia Alvarado is the story of a poverty-stricken peasant in rural Honduras that's a favorite read of many volunteers and Peace Corps workers. Banana Cultures: Agriculture, Consumption, and Environmental Change in Honduras and the United States, by John Soluri, covers the history and growth of Honduras' banana industry along with the consumer mass market in the United States, while Ramón Amaya Amador's novel Prisión Verde gives an unsettling account of life on a banana plantation through the eyes of a worker.

Several well-known writers from abroad have also found inspiration here. William Sydney Porter, aka O'Henry, spent a year or so in Trujillo and Roatán while escaping embezzlement charges in the U.S., after which he coined the term "Banana Republic," and wrote Cabbages and Kings, a collection of stories revolving around the fictitious Central American town of Coralio, Anchuria.

Garífuna music has probably caught on more on the international scene than any other form of Honduran music. Top albums include Aurelio Martinez's Garifuna Soul and Andy Palacios' critically acclaimed Wátina. While musicians in both La Ceiba and San Pedro Sula are peddlers of Latin America's ever-present pop, rock, rap, and reggae mix of reggaeton, none has particularly caught on outside of their local followings. Along the North Coast and Bay Islands, the Garífuna have won acclaim for their dance and music, particularly punta, or bangidy, an intense dance performed by pairs amid the beats of drums, maracas, and other instruments.

Few notable films have been produced about Honduras. Perhaps the best is The Mosquito Coast, the 1986 movie starring Harrison Ford, River Phoenix, and Helen Mirren that was based on the 1982 novel by Paul Theroux. The film focuses on an egotistical inventor, Allie Fox, who is disgusted with American society and moves with his wife and four children from the U.S. to the north coast of Honduras. They set up their own society in the jungle while battling Christian missionaries, guerillas, and the harsh environment of La Mosquitia.